eBay have launched the International postage rate table, these enable you to set a per item or per kilo shipping weight to each country which can then be used across all of your listings. A big advantage is that they enable you to specify different rates for different countries.
For instance you may have one courier rate for the close EU countries (e.g. France, Germany, Begium) whilst your carrier charges more for the EU countries further afield (e.g. Spain and Italy). You may also want to charge for different services to different destinations, for instance Italy is often cited as a problem country so whilst you ship to the whole of the EU on a standard service you might want to specify a price to Italy to allow for the cost of tracking.
Another destination that’s proved troublesome in the past is the Channel Islands, you can now specify a standard cost to locations such as this which whilst classed as domestic postage rates by Royal Mail are an International destination for couriers. Mind you… I’m not quite sure how eBay will charge for Channel Islands as they appear in both the Domestic rate table (as the Channel Islands) as well as the Europe International Rate table (separately as Jersey and Guernsey). If anyone figures it out let us know, otherwise I’d suggest as a fail safe enter the same cost for the Channel Islands in both tables!
You’ll find the new International Rate Tables in your My eBay > Postage and packaging preferences. Once set up for your courier rates this should save you time when listing and enable you to more accurately specify postage costs to different countries around the world as well as the flexibility to charge more for countries where you apply a premium service.
8 Responses
Assuming that we business sellers all use 3rd party tools are there any out there that have actually adopted this yet?
Whilst it looks like a good feature until third party providers incorporate this feature, which maybe rather complex for them, uptake will be minimal.
But per item or per kilo???
If it won’t support grams and fractions of a kilo it is hopeless.
Hmmmm I feel a migraine coming on just thinking about it. Where would International Signed For fall Standard or Express?
My 3rd party programme hasn’t adopted it yet.
royal mail and most others , have 2 or 3 destination area cost options regardless where you send an item ,europe ,rest of the world, and uk, we wonder why all the complication and detail, simply refuse to ship to such as Italy and other suspect destinations,is the easy option
Italy, you can come back to us…and we can send ISF – We had to block all Italy, for same reason as many, some customers asked for ISF and we let them through, but many I guess dont bother when they see the block – so this might increase our sales as we can add the ISF fee in
This is a very welcome move from eBay. Regularly shipping items weighing more than 30kg I have had to block the Channel Islands, the Highlands, Northern Ireland etc because I couldn’t differentiate on the shipping cost. I want these people in far flung places to buy my stuff but I cant pay the courier costs for them. Amazon force me to charge the same to ship a trampoline to Leicester which would cost me about £25 as to ship the same trampoline to Northern Ireland which would cost me about £85. Thank you eBay for giving me this option….Top Marks! Just a shame I cant edit my existing listings to add the weight or add the weight in TurboLister. Hey Ho.
Very good. As a global trader shipping from Asia, I can tell you there is a big difference in reliability from country to country, some are predictable, others not, eg, Germany. UK is my most reliable destination with less than 1 in 300 shipped loss rate, so that would be about 2.99 really, whereas Russia might be 100 pounds, with Italy and Malta 10 GOLD INGOTS, and extra for distress flare attached to parcel.
The new postage rate tables are totally useless for sellers who sell items with different weights.
For Example I sell T-Shirts that weigh 500gr.
I sell shoes that weigh 2KG
The new tables are set up thinking all sellers sell items that weigh the same (Ebay still does not understand the business of their Power Sellers)
So lets say I want to use these tables.
T-Shirt 500gr.
Postage UK 2.00
Postage Italy 4.00
Postage USA 4.50
That is all ok if all my items I sell weigh the same.
But now lets use these tables for a pair of Shoes weighing 2KG? What to do now Ebay?
Big fireworks by Ebay for a function that is of very little use (Even Ebay Customer Service admitted this to me on the phone today)
What they should have done is make a postage table that is configurable for EACH item we sell and not a “Global Postage Table”
Lets hope the improvements on International Selling i.e. Anchor Shop are a bit more useful when they are rolled out in November.